105 years ago today: Akira Kurosawa born

Exactly 105 years ago today, on the 23rd of March 1910, Isamu and Shima Kurosawa welcomed their eighth child to the world in Tokyo, Japan. They decided to call the boy Akira, a fairly common Japanese first name that is written with a character that combines the sun and the moon (明) and carries meanings such as “bright”, “clear”, “brilliant” and “intelligent”.

The name would turn out to be very fitting, as Akira grew up to be a filmmaker responsible for some of the most influential and intelligent films in the history of cinema. During a career which lasted over half a century, Kurosawa directed thirty feature films and provided the screenplays for over thirty others.

For more information about the life of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), check out our recently updated and published Akira Kurosawa biography. And well, pretty much the rest of this website!